COUNTY PRESSED TO ACCELERATE SCRIPPS LAND-USE APPROVALS

With less than three months before Palm Beach County is supposed to give Scripps Florida the land for its headquarters, county commissioners today head into a crucial meeting to revisit an agenda they failed to address a week ago.

The county must pass almost a dozen changes to its zoning and land-use planning laws to move the biotech project forward on Mecca Farms, an orange grove west of Palm Beach Gardens.

Commissioners originally were supposed to make the change on Sept. 8, but hurricanes and daunting opposition from environmental groups and residents have hindered progress.

Those close to the project have been urging it forward for months, including Dr. Richard Lerner, president of The Scripps Research Institute. Lerner said he had a long conversation with Gov. Jeb Bush over the weekend, touching on Scripps Florida hiring, research and the commissioners' slow progress.

Lerner said he was happy to hear Bush say he would ask commissioners to "get on with it."

"I just can't imagine that they'll do anything but go forward," Lerner said.

A Bush spokesman said the governor always has been involved, talking with commissioners and Scripps officials, but would not say what action, if any, Bush has taken to speed the process along.

Bush lured Scripps to Florida a year ago with the promise of $310 million, plus interest, of state money to pay the institute's operating costs for seven years. The county chipped in to buy land, erect Scripps Florida's building and develop the surrounding site. The county recently revised its cost estimate for the project to $452 million, from $667 million.

Commissioners said they would press forward today.

Commissioner Burt Aaronson said he would "do the right thing." Commissioner Mary McCarty said she is "optimistic."

But signs point to another tense and long day.

Last week's County Commission meeting became bogged down in protest from people who oppose putting the biotech village on a rural orange grove, prompting the county to schedule a public information session for people interested in the project. That session, on Tuesday, deteriorated into angry exchanges between a top county official and people in attendance, underscoring the gulf between the county employees planning the Scripps-anchored project and its opponents.

"This is not you vs. us. This is our community," Deputy County Administrator Verdenia Baker told about 25 people in the audience.

They were told they had to keep their questions to the 6-inch stack of technical documents detailing the proposed land-use changes.

Questions based on opinion or carrying "editorial" comment were prohibited, county Scripps Program Manager Bevin Beaudet said, his voice rising in anger.

But as project opponents voiced their views, the tension mounted. Within the first hour, Beaudet ordered security guards to remove one man from the meeting and threatened others with expulsion.

"This meeting is a sham," Boca Raton attorney Barry Silver said as he left.

Some of the land-use changes contemplated would amend the county's planning documents to allow for at least 2,000 homes and up to 10.5 million square feet of office and lab space on a 1,919-acre property surrounded by rural and open lands.

Project opponents think the change would create sprawl and damage the environment. Project supporters think Scripps Florida will create thousands of jobs and make the state a biotech powerhouse.

The land-use changes must happen for the research center to be built on Mecca Farms on a tight schedule laid out in the county's agreement with Scripps.

The land at Mecca Farms must be ready for construction on Jan. 3 so the research center can open in fall 2006.

Cadence Mertz can be reached at camertz@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6611.